Verizon and AST SpaceMobile have announced a partnership deal to improve customers’ coverage gaps when traveling outside the usual terrestrial cell towers. Verizon has committed $100 million in the new agreement to connect AST’s satellite network to phones using the 850 Mhz band.
AST SpaceMobile will soon launch five new satellites into low orbit this summer. Founder and CEO Abel Avellan said that Verizon allows the company “to target 100 percent coverage of the continental United States.”
Other Satellite Cellular Service Partnerships
Verizon and SpaceMobile are not the only ones working together on satellite coverage. Recently, AT&T joined Google and Vodafone as investors in AST earlier this year, which runs through to 2030.
Our Take On This Partnership Between Verizon and AST SpaceMobile
This is great news for Verizon customers. From experience, there are still many terrible and even dead zones. With additional coverage, Verizon is stepping it up to bring additional coverage to parts of the United States that otherwise struggle to have stable network connectivity.
Apple added the Emergency SOS via Satelite feature to iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 in areas without connectivity, and Android followed suit. AST SpaceMobile, Starlink, and T-Mobile’s satellite-to-cellular services support additional features like voice and video calls.
